ARTICLES ABOUT PACK OF CIGARETTES BY DATE - PAGE 2

EXCUSE the obvious glee on the faces of congressional Democrats. Senate Republicans had just gift-wrapped an ideal campaign issue by killing landmark anti-smoking legislation that had won wide public support.This was a major, self-inflicted wound. Republicans knuckled under to pressure from the tobacco industry and the prospect of tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds from tobacco firms. That kind of special-interest dealing tends to infuriate voters.Democrats and President Clinton had been the most fervent champions of the anti-smoking bill in an attempt to stem teen-age tobacco use. But Republicans succeeded in attaching enough objectionable amendments that the bill could not muster the required 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.

TAX TOBACCO like crazy, squeeze billions of dollars out of the tobacco companies, and save a generation of kids from smoking.That's the formula government and anti-tobacco activists are pushing these days. If the government cracks down enough, some believe, tobacco use could dwindle to nothing in our lifetime.Congress recently began debating far-reaching tobacco legislation that includes a hefty tax on cigarettes. But politicians would do well to heed the recent experience of other countries that have tried such measures in attempting to reduce tobacco consumption.

ARIZONA Sen. John McCain's tobacco bill, introduced last week, is due to go before the full Senate after being approved by the Senate Commerce Committee.The bill would add a $1.10-per-pack fee on cigarette companies; place a $6.5 billion annual cap on legal damages stemming from lawsuits; impose penalties on cigarette makers if the number of underage smokers doesn't decline 60 percent in a decade; and restrict cigarette advertising.The bill would raise $516 billion over 25 years, making it a much stiffer package than the $368.

If a politician proposed a tax that disproportionately took money from the poor and minority citizens, how would most people react? Negatively, to say the least. But that's exactly what politicians in Washington and many state capitals are trying to do right now, and one listens in vain for denunciations of the idea. Why? Because the effort is cloaked in the abolitionist rhetoric of the anti-smoking lobby.A little background. Conventional wisdom holds that nonsmoking taxpayers subsidize smokers through various public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

MOSCOW -- Sleek and glistening, it soars above Manhattan like a powerful guided missile, heading straight for the heart of the patriotic Russian consumer.The missile is a pack of cigarettes, and it is emblazoned on billboards and light poles all over Moscow, along with a Cold War slogan resonating with nationalistic feeling."Strike Back," it says.The message is clear. Buy these cigarettes, called Yava Gold, and you'll be buying Russian, striking back at the Western companies that are assaulting this nation with their products, particularly their cigarettes.

Two men, one with a gun, attacked and robbed a 15-year-old Millersville boy of a pack of cigarettes and a lighter Monday as he walked behind the Metro Food Market in the 600 block of Old Mill Road.The boy told police when two men 18 to 20 years old approached him shortly after 9 p.m. behind the store. One grabbed him in a choke hold, and the other placed a gun to his head and demanded money, police said. The boy said he had no money, so the men emptied his pockets, stealing a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, police said.

Police are looking for a man who stole cigarettes from a Linthicum gas station Monday afternoon.Police said a man walked into the Shell Food Mart in the 400 block of Camp Meade Road about 4: 25 p.m. and argued with : :TC cashier.The thief snatched nine packs of Salem cigarettes and ran out of the store. He was last seen heading toward the Linthicum light rail station.Pub Date: 4/24/96

A man who robbed a High's convenience store in Finksburg on Tuesday may be the same gunman who robbed a Hampstead convenience store last week, state police said yesterday.Investigators described the man as white, about 25, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 140 pounds and sporting a three-day growth of beard.He was wearing a tan parka with a fur hood and bluejeans.In the Finksburg incident at 10: 45 p.m. in the 3900 block of Sykesville Road, the robber laid a blue-steel, semiautomatic pistol on the counter and demanded money after asking to buy a pack of cigarettes.

"Do you think someone will offer me drugs this year?"It was one of those confessional conversations that take place so easily in a rolling car, and it revealed how bewildering middle school looks to a new sixth grader. Joe must have felt as if he were entering the lion's den."Maybe," I said, and my heart sank at the truth of this."But certainly someone is going to offer you a cigarette before the year is up. Do you know what you are going to do?"Joe stiffened. "I'll never smoke, Mom. Smoking is stupid."

Some parents call it "hanging out with a bad crowd." For some Howard County teen-agers, this seems to happen by default."There's nothing for us to do around here but hang out and smoke cigarettes," says a thin girl wearing braces, a flannel shirt and high-top sneakers. She's 14 and stands with others her age outside an entrance to The Mall in Columbia. She's smoking Marlboro Lights, claims to have used LSD and marijuana, and is bored in the land of plenty.She is not alone.Any weekend night you find them hanging out at the mall, in parking lots, in wooded areas or outside movie theaters.